CMM 2020-05-10

Minutes of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business

Concord (NH) Monthly Meeting of

the Religious Society of Friends

Fifth Month 10^th, 2020

Sixteen Friends gathered by Zoom connection and entered into quiet worship.  We accepted the minutes of Fourth Month as posted on the website.

05.1  Nominations:  The clerk of nominating committee presented their report of positions for Friends use of their gifts in service to the Meeting in the coming year.  It was sent out electronically prior to this business session.  She pointed out that the report includes designation of an initial convener, but the clerking of those committees will be decided at the first meeting of the committee.  New appointments noted included Heidi B as recording clerk and as a member of nominating committee and Wendy L as communications assistant.  Several committees have grown due to Friends expressing interest in serving there.

We decided that our M&C should appoint the representatives to NEYM M&C.

Friends accepted the nominating committee recommendations.  We also accepted the clerk’s report that he had formed a clerk’s consultation committee which is noted on the nominating committee report.

05.2  Proposed Budget for FY2021:  Finance committee presented the finalization of the budget for the coming fiscal year, which had been sent out electronically before this business session and as a draft the month before.

Friends were also informed that there may be a surplus of income over expenses when the current fiscal year closes at the end of the month.  Finance will ask Friends to reach out to organizations that we usually support to see whether our surplus might be used to help with extraordinary needs at any of these organizations due to the pandemic.  Friends can let them know now if they are a good contact for an organization.

After hearing the reasoning for some changes in some lines of the budget, Friends were happy to accept the budget for the coming year beginning June 1, 2020.

05.3  Meeting Times:  A concern was raised about the time for the scheduled beginning of weekly Meeting for Worship (since we no longer have singing together for 15 minutes before settling into waiting worship).  The clerk of M&C brought a proposal that we begin waiting worship at 10:00 a.m.  Friends wanted this change to be considered during the coming month before making any decision to change from our current time of 10:15 a.m. allowing more Friends to be made aware of the proposal.  M&C can change its procedure for when they begin the Zoom hosting and will notify the rest of us.

[NB. Confusion about minute 05.3 led the recording clerk to read what had been written more carefully.  It wasn't inaccurate, but it wasn't clear either.  That minute has been rewritten, which should be pointed out before the minutes are accepted as final.  At the meeting for business on Sixth month 14, 2020, the re-written minute was accepted by Friends.]

05.4  Zoom Fatigue:  Friends are all feeling a concern about Zoom fatigue that may be exacerbated by considering business or having a special program too quickly after the close of regular Meeting for Worship, greeting each other and having announcements.  We are not ready to make decisions for the longer term, but we will experiment in Sixth month with starting our consideration of business at 1:00 p.m. on the second Sunday.

After a brief time of quiet worship, Meeting adjourned, purposing to meet again on the Second Sunday of June 2020.

NB. The Income & Expenses Sheet was created with two decimal points, which were removed for readability, the cents being unimportant to the overall understanding.  This can have the effect of throwing off any given sum by a dollar due to compounded rounding.  —  Prepared by Greg Heath and Chris Haigh.

NB. The Balance Sheet was created with two decimal points, which were removed for readability, the cents being unimportant to the overall understanding.  This can have the effect of throwing off any given sum by a dollar due to compounded rounding.

Do we have the resources to support our obligations? YES

Variable Assets Less Current Liabilities and Replacement Reserve = $3,706

1. Projection assumes only donations from regular monthly donors.
2. Budget 2021 amount requested by committee.
3. Budget 2021 is simply our best guess at what may be needed.
4. Outreach requested $355. Added $10/month to continue NEYM provided ZOOM meeting hosting.
5. Replacement Reserve: $3,000 plus anticipated interest income.
6. Electricity based on Prepaid Purchase Agreement.
7. AFSC and NEYM at roughly 2% increase.
8. COVID-19 Expense comes from prior year funds on hand.  Income reflected simply to offset the expense for gloves.
9. Estimated probable loss to Rental Income.

Ministry and Counsel Committee Report, May 10^th, 2020

Ministry and Counsel CMM

Report and Announcements

May 2020

1. Zoom Usage:  We feel the “Lobby” and “Meeting Room” breakout room is working well. Clerk will ask people who have to leave early to raise hand so they can be called on first before they must leave.
2. Meeting Phone Number:  In view of the lack of in-person meetings which allow visitors to drop in, we felt that the Meeting should have a phone number available that could receive pastoral calls or receive questions about our worship.  We prefer a number that can be forwarded to different people but we’ll leave the details to Property Committee.  M and C will work out call receivers between clerk, assistant clerk, or members of M&C.
3. Update on Small Groups:  All of us are feeling the groups are going well and that they have been a real blessing in this time of physical isolation so we do not experience social isolation.  Some of us have begun experimenting with different ways to focus the group beyond checking in.  Some ideas we have to prompt sharing are:
   
   1. Pix of your family that has a story behind it
   2. Funny story about your family life;
   3. Adventures you have had;
   4. Book you are reading or that are important to you;
   5. Life in the a particular decade – or as a teenager or other age;
   6. How you found Quakers; what was your first Meeting like?
   7. How Quakerism has changed you.
   8. Things you hated as child but like now.
   9. What’s the first historical event that you remember?
   10. Does anyone have questions about Quakerism?

We suggest the groups decide if they want to experiment with different prompts and decide ahead what it will be.  Continue to check in with each other, then experiment with other ways to deepen your relationships.  We started with these small groups so that if others want to join there is room, and we feel there is no reason people could not join whenever they feel ready.  Let M&C know if you are interested.  If we want to keep groups going, we may shuffle and re-form them periodically.

4. Intergenerational Party in early June has been postponed.  Thinking that perhaps we could morph into an inclusive picnic and Kayak/Canoe trip in August?
5. June Fourth Sunday:  We are considering a June 4^th Sunday Program on Zoom with breakouts.
6. Time Issues:  For Business discussion:  Now that we have smoothed out our joining of the zoom meeting, we hope to smooth out some bumps.
   
   1. Meeting Start Time:  Since we do not have singing to use the first fifteen minutes, can we shorten the timeframe?  Should we start worship at 10 a.m. and close worship at 11 a.m., so we are finishing before noon and that a following program could start earlier?
   2. Zoom Fatigue:  A secondary but related question consider whether we might want to change our 4^th Sunday to be a weekend evening.  This would allow those who are working during the week to use Sunday afternoon daylight time differently than Zooming.  Also it breaks up the intensity of two Zoom meetings one right after the other.